There was a time when two silver
medals in the space of an hour in the same sport would have had Britain
dancing in the streets of the Olympiad.

But not at this golden Games and not
in sailing in which Team GB have ruled the Olympic roost since Sydney,
via Athens and Beijing. Only Ben Ainslie, however, tasted victory at
this regatta as Australia, a traditional enemy of the seas, topped the
medals table with three golds.

It seemed as if from the moment the
breeze died down in the final seconds of the Star race last week,
relegating Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson to a shock second place, the
wind went out of the sails of the Brits. The four golds of Qingdao
became the four silvers of Weymouth.

The two on Friday were all the more
disappointing in that both the men’s and women’s 470 started their final
races with chances of a gold medal.

The Scottish/Yorkshire combination of
Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell faced a much harder task than the
pairing of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, which made for differing
expectations and completely contrasting reactions. The women looked and
sounded in the doldrums; the men were surfing the waves with a full
spinnaker.

‘They’ll be dancing in the sheep pens of Tiree,’ the tumultuous Patience joked. ‘We’re happy boys.’ Mills looked anything but a happy girl. ‘I’m a bit gutted,’ she said. ‘I feel as if I have let everyone down.’

Mills and Clark had gone into the
medal race tied on 33 points with the New Zealand pairing of Jo Aleh and
Olivia Powrie. The Brits enjoyed the better of the pre-race manoeuvring
and managed to gain a boat length at the start line.

Sail away: The boys delight in their second place finish

Glory boys: Australia celebrate their victory

That modest short-term gain soon changed to a huge long-term loss as the Kiwis headed right in search of more wind.

Britain failed to cover the move,
stayed left and found themselves trailing irretrievably before you could
say ‘abandon ship’. It was more a case of abandon gold. ‘We knew it was
gone halfway up the first beat,’ Clark admitted.

‘We are gutted we did not put up a good show in the final race.’

In fact, the British women spent most
of the race at the rear of the 10 boats, eventually finishing in ninth,
more than two minutes and 300 metres behind New Zealand.

The body language of Mills at the
finish betrayed the disappointment of defeat rather than any
satisfaction at winning a silver medal. For Mills, from Dinas Powys in
the Vale of Glamorgan, and for Clark, from Essex, the only way was gold.

It took a hug from the older Clark to the tearful Mills and a reminder of their achievement to restore some equilibrium.

Waiting to go: Patience and Bithell at the start

The pair came together only 18 months
ago and have already won a world championship. The next stop is Rio in
2016 and an upgrade on their medal.

‘We made a deal over there (on the jetty) to keep together for the next Olympics,’ Clark said.

No-one is ever going to separate
Patience and Bithell, best of friends, team-mates and in their childhood
days opponents in the well-named Optimist class.

Both have retained their optimism,
not to mention an exuberance which certainly swamps any self-doubt. They
talk the talk and, given they are Olympic debutants, they pretty much
sailed the sail.

Like the women, they made the better
start over the Australian world champions, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm
Page. But the task of beating the Aussies by two places proved too much.

‘We have plenty of time,’ Patience
declared. ‘We are young boys. We mean business. We’re in paradise. This
is cool, so cool. We love the pressure, the tightness, the closeness.’

Imagine the reaction if he won gold.
Bithell, meanwhile, did a back somersault into Weymouth Bay. ‘Tom Daley
with a life jacket,’ he said.

Mood swing: The girls cheered up after their initial dismay

There followed a speech from Patience
that could have come from the fields of Bannockburn and not the waters
of Weymouth. Stuff about their lives being changed and about nothing
ever being the same, about waking up and going to sleep with demons in
the head and dreams of standing on a podium. And more. ‘William
Wallace,’ Bithell said. ‘Freedom.’

The only person missing was Mel Gibson in his director’s chair.

The bit about a changed life amused Mills. ‘I do not think he realises we are sailors,’ she said. ‘Luke’s in a dream world.’

Stephen Park, GB sailing team manager, declared himself pleased with an overall tally of one gold and four silver medals.

Fire away: Saskia Clark lets off a flair

‘You’ve got to be happy winning medals from half your opportunities,’ he said. ‘We’ve exceeded our target of four. Being realistic, we are also conscious that our results could have been better.’

There was, too, a word from Park on
the devastation felt by Mills. ‘We want people to be gutted that they
have not won gold because that is what they have to strive for. If they
don’t then they don’t have a hope in hell of winning gold.

‘She (Hannah) has a huge amount of talent and flair, and has an excellent chance of winning gold in Rio (in 2016).

‘It is a measure of the expectation
in the team that she was so down. But, to be honest, I would want her
to be initially disappointed.’

Bithell was also disappointed. He wanted to become Rochdale’s most famous sportsman.